Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Sunday, 10 January 2016

daphne (barberry?), golden dawn, wonderful lunch, positive start, what does it mean to be human in the digital age?



The daphne - or is it a barberry? - in the garden, with its golden leaves, is luminous in the dawn from the bedroom window. In daylight it is still the garden's bright centre of hope.

Astonishingly heavy rain at times yesterday - ditches and brooks filling up.

Met old friends for lunch in Oxford. A wonderful time we had. Agreed that it had been too long since we saw each other last - nearly ten years, was it?

First week of the year over. Feeling positive about the working year ahead.

Meantime, there's a terrific event coming up at the Mathematical Institute, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford on Thursday 21st January, 5.30-7 pm, which is open to all and is to be followed by a drinks reception - it's entitled, What Does it Mean to be Human in the Digital Age? It's part of the Humanities and the Digital Age series that is running this year.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)